The present invention relates to a novel potato cultivar and to tubers produced by that potato cultivar.
The potato is one of the world's most important food crops. Potatoes are currently grown commercially in nearly every state of the United States. Annual potato production exceeds 18 million tons in the United States and 300 million tons worldwide. The popularity of the potato stems mainly from its versatility and nutritional value. Potatoes can be used fresh, frozen or dried, or can be processed into flour, starch or alcohol. They contain complex carbohydrates and are rich in calcium, niacin and vitamin C.
To keep the potato industry growing to meet the needs of the consuming public, substantial research and development efforts are devoted to the modernization of planting and harvesting of fields and processing of potatoes, and to the development of economically advantageous potato varieties. Through cross-breeding of potatoes, researchers hope to obtain potatoes with the desirable characteristics of good processability, high solids content, high yield, resistance to diseases and pests and adaptability to various growing areas and conditions.
The acreage planted in potatoes has declined steadily for many years, and this decline, coupled with increasing consumption, must be offset by higher useable yields. In some areas, diseases and pests damage crops despite the use of herbicides and pesticides. The problem of the golden nematode in the United States, presently endemic to portions of New York State, is one example of the destruction to suceptible potato varieties. Potato varieties with high yields, disease resistance, and adaptability to new environments cn eliminate many problems for the potato grower and provide more plentiful and economical products to the consumers.
For the potato chip processing industry, potatoes having high solids content, good shipping qualities and good finished chip color can increase production volumes and efficiencies and product acceptability. Potato varieties which yield low-solids tubers result in unnecessary energy usage during the frying process. Moreover, as solids content increases, the oil content of fried products decreases, which is a favorable improvement.
The research leading to potato varieties which combine the advantageous characteristics referred to above is largely empirical. This research requires large investments of time, manpower, and money. The development of a potato cultivar can often take up to eight years or more from greenhouse to commercial usage. Breeding begins with careful selection of superior parents to incorporate the most important characteristics into the progeny. Since all desired traits usually do not appear with just one cross, breeding must be cumulative.
Present breeding techniques begin with the controlled pollination of parental clones. Typically, pollen is collected in gelatin capsules for later use in pollinating the female parents. Hybrid seeds are sown in greenhouses, and tubers are harvested and retained from thousands of individual seedlings. The next year the tubers are planted in the field, where extreme caution is exercised to avoid the spread of viruses and diseases. From this first-year seedling crop, several "seed" tubers from each hybrid individual which survived the selection process are retained for the next year's planting. After the second year, samples are taken for density measurements and fry tests to determine the suitability of the tubers for commercial usage. Plants which have survived the selection process to this point are then planted at an expanded volume the third year for a more comprehensive series of fry tests and density determinations. At the fourth-year stage of development, surviving selections are subjected to field trials in several states to determine their adaptability to different growing conditions. Eventually, the varieties having superior qualities are transferred to other farms and the seed increased to commercial scale. Generally, by this time, a full eight years of planting, harvesting and testing have been invested in attempting to develop the new and improved potato cultivars.
Heretofore, significant progress has been made in the development of disease-resistant, high-yield potato cultivars. There is, however, a continuing need to develop novel cultivars which combine the properties of disease resistance, resistance to pests, particularly the golden nematode, and good processability for manufacturers of potato chips and other potato products.